The new direction of contemporary pizza explained by 16 speakers at Identità Golose

We've reached the tenth edition (that is to say 9+1)! Identità di Pizza – which recently became "Identità di Pane e Pizza", because the world of bread-making reclaims its place – returns at Identità Golose 2020, with the usual successful format: not a celebration of the current state, but an injection of intelligence, and a stimuli for what will be, in an explosively fertile blend of innovative pizzaioli, guests from abroad capable of offering new points of view, different schools (of thought, of technique), but all sharing a precise goal, that is to say lead pizza into modernity, enhance it while tracing a precise character. In short, think of the new perspectives of contemporary pizza. All this, as always, in collaboration with Petra® Molino Quaglia.

We said it's the 10th edition, that is to say 9+1. This because the first official edition was in 2012, with Simone Padoan, Beniamino Bilali, Franco Pepe, Giuseppe Giordano, Massimo Gatti, Roberto Pongolini, Corrado Assenza, Enzo Coccia and English Jon Pollard. But the year before four pizzaioli – including of course Padoan, the real north star in the revolution that was taking place – had already talked at the congress. This shows the early legitimation of pizza that Identità proclaimed at a decisive moment in the evolution that soon led to the recent impetuous growth.

A record number of speakers this year (with an excellent and unprecedented presence of women): 16 maestros of pizza under the spotlight, eight very interesting lessons, throughout the entire day on Monday 26th October in Sala Blu 2 at MiCo in Milan.

We start at 10.30 with a nice, unprecedented duet: Ciro Oliva, representing the nouvelle vague of Naples with his Concettina ai Tre Santi in Rione Sanità, will cross his peel with Cesare Foschi of Farina e Tempesta in Tarquinia (Viterbo). Two debuts at Identità, showing how Identità di Pane e Pizza always researches new protagonists, broadens the borders of this tasty world, focuses on new energies to continue to feed the future of this field.

The following speaker is also a debut, at 11.20: Cristian Marasco, a growing talent with his La Grotta Azzurra, with locations in Garlate and Merate, in the province of Lecco, and Bonate Sopra, Bergamo.

After the break, at 1 pm the stage of Sala Blu 2 will find it hard to hold all the Donne di Pizza Donne di Cuore, a group entirely made of women, eight masters of leavening joined by respect and friendship. And a mission: create good to do good. We'll see Petra Antolini, Giovanna Baratella, Francesca Romana Barberini, Paola Cappuccio, Enrica Causa, Eleonora Massaretti, Marina Orlandi and Claudia Tosello.

For them too – except for reporter Francesca Romana Barberini, an old acquaintance – it will be the first time at Identità. This surely doesn't apply to the great Simone Padoan (I Tigli, San Bonifacio - Verona), who has participated from the very beginning and continues to do so, with his inexhaustible creative energy (his lesson is at 1.50 pm).

From Veneto to Sicily: after Padoan the microphone at 2.40 pm will go to Friedrich Schmuck, from Piano B Casual Food (Syracuse), that is to say contemporary pizza finally reaches the deep south, islands included.

At 3. 30 pm we will welcome Luca Pezzetta (L’Osteria di Birra del Borgo, Rome), born in 1989, tireless researcher who constantly works on techniques to use wheat, on kneading methods, spontaneous fermentations, long and medium maturation, high hydration. Indeed the award as "Best Chef Pizzaiolo" for the Guida Identità Golose 2020 is well-deserved.

Grand finale with the last two lessons. The first at 4.20, with an Italian speaker who works abroad: Fabrizio Mancinetti, pizzaiolo at The Oven in Bath, England; he first sensed the magnetic power of dough when he was only 14 and worked in the dining room in the village of Anguillara Sabazia, on Lake Bracciano, where he was born in 1992.

The games end at 5.10, with the great Francesco Martucci of I Masanielli in Caserta. Quoting ourselves: "Even when you believe the space left for improvement in a specific field is very small, you can be proven wrong. This applies to all aspects in life, but here we speak of pizzas, those we tasted from Martucci are extraordinary. Dough and topping: all of the highest standards ".

TO REGISTER IN IDENTITÀ MILANO 2020, CLICK HERE AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS 

Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso